Bloomington’s The Mill launches new startup accelerator
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The Mill, a nonprofit entrepreneurship center in Bloomington, has launched an accelerator program aimed at startups looking to scale up their operations.
The 90 Days to Scale program will focus on a cohort of 5-6 companies that will receive personalized, one-on-one support, participate in expert-led workshops, and have access to resources to help them grow.
“We’re trying to flip the model here a little bit and say, ‘Okay, let’s really get these peer cohorts built,” said Ravi Bhatt, program lead for 90 Days to Scale. “Let’s figure out what the companies need, and then to that need, figure out what capacity do we need to build, and I think that’s going to lead to a bunch of cool stuff.”
Bhatt, who is also the founder and CEO of Bloomington-based Folia, says a lot of The Mill’s resources are targeted toward more early-stage ventures. Because of that, he said startups that are further along in the development process haven’t taken as much advantage of those resources as they could.
The participating companies will outline their goals for the 90-day period and meet biweekly to discuss their efforts to achieve those goals and provide a sense of accountability among them.
The other part of the program is engaging with facilitators in the entrepreneurial space in Bloomington that can help the companies move toward their goals.
“The facilitators [can] figure out what are all of those connections that we can make for the companies to not just unblock them, to make the connections to customers, connections to capital, connections to near peers who know something really specific that could unblock them,” Bhatt said.
The Mill plans to have four, 90-day cycles per year, and companies can participate for up to eight cycles. Unlike some other accelerators, each cycle will not end with a pitch presentation but rather demonstrating and celebrating their wins in categories such as new customers, revenue growth, and website traffic growth.
Bhatt said he has seen tremendous interest in the new accelerator, but The Mill is intentionally starting small, focusing first on Bloomington-based startups.
“Where I think we want to focus, initially, is on those folks that are maybe a little bit at the stronger end of early-stage startups,” he said. “From a revenue perspective, [that’s] maybe closer to $1 million or a little bit more in revenue. Because I think if we build that strength first, then it’ll even help some of the folks that are a little earlier in the in the trajectory.”
While the accelerator is still in its infancy, Bhatt said he believes there is potential for growth, and the first few cohorts will help identify where that growth can come from.
You can learn more about the 90 Days to Scale program by clicking here.